Why Child Abuse by Peacekeepers and Aid Workers Often Goes Unreported

Why Child Abuse by Peacekeepers and Aid Workers Often Goes Unreported
A new report calls attention to the problem. Also, good news and bad news about the use of child soldiers, and Amnesty International's 2008 report on human rights. Transcript of radio broadcast:
30 May 2008

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Amnesty International, in its yearly report, marks the sixtieth anniversary this December of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The group says that sixty years after the U.N. declaration, people are still tortured or mistreated in at least eighty-one countries. At least fifty-four countries hold unfair trials. And, it says, at least seventy-seven countries do not let people speak freely.

Amnesty International says the most powerful countries must lead by example. It says China must honor the human rights promises it made around the Beijing Summer Olympics. The group called on China to permit free speech and freedom of the press and to end the use of "re-education through labor."

It says the United States must close its Guantanamo detention camp and secret detention centers, and give detainees fair trials or release them.

Another demand is that Russia show greater acceptance of political dissent, and no acceptance of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Amnesty noted an increase in big demonstrations around the world, saying it signals a growing demand for justice and equality.


A separate report this week dealt with sexual abuse of children by aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers. A study by Save the Children, a British charity, showed that children affected by conflict or natural disaster rarely report abuse. They fear that the abuser might come back and hurt them, or that they might lose their aid, or even that their families might punish them.
Save the Children spoke with more than two hundred girls and boys in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. The group says peacekeepers and aid workers traded sex for food, money, soap and, in some cases, mobile phones. Children as young as six were abused.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the issue very serious. He says the cases will be carefully investigated and that his policy is "zero tolerance" for abuse.

The United Nations cannot punish peacekeepers for crimes; it can only send them back to their own countries to be tried.

The charity says the United Nations and other agencies have taken some action but not enough to solve the problem quickly. The report says Save the Children itself dismissed three workers in the past year for sex with seventeen-year-old girls.

Save the Children wants the U.N. to establish local reporting systems and create an agency to supervise international efforts to stop abuse.

And, finally, there was this report last week from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: The number of armed conflicts involving children decreased in the last three years, from twenty-seven to seventeen. Progress came as some conflicts in Africa and elsewhere ended.

But tens of thousands of children remain in armed groups in at least twenty-four countries or territories. The report says Burma, also known as Myanmar, remained the worst government offender.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.

----------------------------Google Translate

为什么虐待儿童的维和援助工作者往往未
新报告呼吁注意这个问题。此外，好消息和坏消息，关于使用儿童兵，和国际特赦组织的2008年人权报告。全文电台广播：
2008年5月30日

这是在新闻中在美国之音特别英语。

国际特赦组织在其年度报告，马克60周年之际，这12月的世界人权宣言。该集团指出，六十年后的联合国宣言，人们仍在遭受酷刑或虐待，在至少81个国家。至少54个国家进行不公正的审判。并且，它说，至少有77个国家，不要让人民自由发言。

大赦国际表示，最强大的国家必须以身作则。它说，中国必须履行其人权承诺，取得了周围的北京夏季奥运会。该集团呼吁中国允许自由言论和新闻自由，并停止使用“重新劳教人员” 。

它说，美国必须关闭其在关塔那摩拘留营和秘密关押中心，并给予被拘留者的公平审判或释放他们。

另一项要求是，俄罗斯表现出更大的接受持不同政见者，都是不能接受的侵犯人权的行为在车臣。

特赦组织指出，增加在大示威，世界各地的说，它预示着日益增长的需求，为正义和平等的。


一份单独的报告，这个星期处理性虐待儿童的援助工作者和联合国维和人员。一项研究，拯救儿童，一个英国慈善机构，表明受冲突影响的儿童或自然灾害很少报告滥用。他们害怕施虐者可能回来，伤害了他们，或他们可能会失去他们的援助，或什至认为，他们的家人可能会惩罚他们。
拯救儿童组织以以上200女孩和男孩在苏丹南部，象牙海岸和海地。该组织说，维和人员和援助工作者交易性的食物，金钱，肥皂和，在某些情况下，移动电话。岁的儿童6人滥用。

联合国秘书长潘基文所谓的问题非常严重。他说，案件会仔细调查，而且他的政策是“零容忍”被滥用。

联合国不能为维和惩治犯罪的，它只能派他们回到自己的国家受到审判。

慈善机构说，联合国和其他机构已采取了一些行动，但不足以解决问题迅速。报告说，拯救儿童本身，免去3名工人在过去的一年里为性别与17岁的男女孩。

拯救儿童组织希望联合国，以建立当地的报告制度和建立一个机构来监督国际努力，以制止滥用。

和，最后，有这份报告上周由该联盟停止使用儿童兵：武装冲突的数目涉及儿童的减少，在过去3年，从27到17 。进展来作为一些冲突，在非洲和其他地方的结束。

但成千上万的儿童留在武装团伙中至少有24个国家或地区。报告说，缅甸，也称为缅甸，仍然是政府最严重的罪犯。

这是在新闻中在美国之音特别英语，写的brianna布雷克。我史蒂夫ember